Quality fabrics and leather!

At Alex Upholstery, we are committed to using only high quality fabrics that we know will stand the test of time. We are pleased to be able to offer a number of different suppliers to better help you find exactly what you are looking for, to complete your distinctive upholstery project in the Myerstown, Reading, Lancaster, and Harrisburg PA areas. Please check out our different suppliers below.

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability has become an increasingly important issue to the environment and human health. So the big question is:

Is our leather environmentally sound?

#1: All our leather comes from animal hides and skins that are a by product of the food chain. Normally the hide would just rot and go to waste. Instead it can be tanned, which stops the rotting process and makes them useful for many other things. So if tanning didn’t take place, there would be piles of terrible smelling matter filling up the landfills.

#2: In by gone years, most finishes for leather were solvent based, and some tanneries still use solvents. The leather that Alex Upholstery uses, are now made with water instead of cellulose being the main ingredient. There are a couple exceptions, but those finishes are limited and the air exhaust is cleaned before it is release.

#3: Since chemicals are expensive, it is essential that tanners exhaust chemicals into the leather, or have treatments which will remove the chemicals out of waste water. There are terrible stories of pollution from third world countries but where our leathers are made, governments and economics are working together to guarantee that the waste water is treated and clean.

So is leather green? Tanning takes potentially hazardous animal waste and transforms it into a safe product. Good tanning removes and recovers chemicals used in the process and applies color in an environmentally beneficial way. Because of the continual herd replenishment programs, leather can be regarded as renewable. When it is made in the correct way, leather is environmentally sound.

You can rest assured that when you get Alex Upholstery to put leather on your favorite furniture, it will be an environmentally safe leather!